I'm assuming that it's probably a bit easier to fly the advanced flight model with a HOTAS as opposed to just using a joystick? Unfortunately I'm a lefty and I have not taken the time to learn how to fly with my right hand so I'm still stuck using a Saitek Evo joystick. I've increased the deadzones for the x and y axes and that has helped a lot though so now the helicopter doesn't do that annoying oscillation so much when I use the rudder. Is there anyone else here flying Black Shark with a standard joystick?

Save up and go with the HOTAS Panzer, it is a whole new experience and worth every penney.

The money is not the issue with me, it's training myself to use my right hand on the stick!

Left handed HOTAS? Sure they make 'em.

Or you could ask our very own Ghost to make a left handed potato if the joystick is okay.

Would be worth every dime if I was a leftie.

I am left handed as well but over the many many years of flight simming/gaming, I have gotten used to using a HOTAS. Currently, I use a Logitech Wingman 3D Pro. Not a real HOTAS as it has the stick, rudder and throttle built into one unit. I had been using a Saitek X45 for the longest time so the transition to the Logitech was sort of painful, but with practice I got used to it.

Still can't use a mouse with my right hand though.

Haha! What I find hilarious is that I just learned how to use a mouse with my right hand from the beginning. It feels weird if I try to use it with my left hand.

@ Dart - Thanks a lot for that info. I'll look into it.

At the moment, there is a (1) Leftie Franken-Potato. There could be another, I suppose.

Then, there's the full up Lefty HOTAS...

Dart beat me to the link!

I'm thinking the frankenpotato and a regular CH stick would be a lot less expensive than the full blown "leftie" one.

I see post like this a lot. At risk of angering a few I want to say what I used to tell Flight Instructor students, "Its your head that flys, not your hands." You will never hear an airline pilot transitioning from one seat to the other ponder how the "new" hand is going to do the flying. Try swapping your stick and throttle and in 15 minutes you won't know the difference.

There are lots of left-handed helicopter pilots in RL who fly with their right hand! (My wife was one of them!)

That's interesting to hear. There's a company in my town that makes planes, Cirrus. Most if not all of their planes that I've seen have a throttle in the center of the cockpit between the two pilots and each pilot gets a side stick. For the pilot, his side stick is on the left and so he flies with his left hand.

I've asked people that work for the company if that has bothered any customers (I swore if I had one I would end up flying the plane from the right seat) but they said pretty much what you just said, "give it a try, it's easier than you think!"

Yep. Slightly different topic but I was also once a check-airman on the Airbus A320. Pilots transitioning to that often thought getting used to the side-stick. One trip around the circuit and most would never go back. It's the head. It's the head. It's the head.

Just wanted to say that I've been flying Black Shark now with the advanced flight model exclusively for a couple of weeks and its been great! The trimmer is really a life saver for me and the more I use it, the easier it is for me to accomplish my mission goals and live.

This is a fantastic simulation indeed.

I first learned to fly in a Cessna (left seat; left hand on yoke and right hand on throttles), but it was no problem switching to the T-34 (tandem seating; center stick, left power control levers) and on to the TH-57 (right seat; center stick, left collective). Swapping control placement and seat positions seemed to take about 10 hours before it was natural. It was worse switching from right to left seat in the helo since it messed up my hover scan. The hardest transition has been from a single elevator trim wheel in the Cessna, to three full trim wheels in the T-34, followed by the cyclic trim in the TH-57. The MH-60 uses cyclic trim, a four-way hat switch, heading trim and collective trim, but it's grey instead of orange and white, so I'll deal.

Just takes time in model, I guess (says the FNG).